Publication Date: 07-10-2025

Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989) review

Dir. Arthur Penn

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

This review was originally written in 2013, but never published to my original ProBoards website nor my official website until now.

It’s difficult to review and discuss Penn & Teller Get Killed as a typical comedy because, much like the duo it is profiling, the film attempts to subvert convention and defy the ordinary and is hard to judge on the basis of typical cinema. It’s the same ethos that led to the duo’s cancelled video game, Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors, a video game conceived as a con against its players. The film plays by its own rules, operates under the logic of illusionists, and provides the viewer with eight-nine minutes of unpredictability and ridiculousness.

We open on the set of a talk show, with magicians Penn Jillette and his silent-partner Teller hanging upside down in mid-air. The cameras themselves are upside, showing Penn and Teller allegedly sitting behind a desk on set right side up. Penn and Teller do a few levitation tricks in front of a studio audience, who obviously know the trick, and encourage them to respond enthusiastically when Penn asks, “are we live?” to assure the audiences at home that there is no camera trickery.

This is one of the many tricks Penn and Teller perform in the film, but this film isn’t just a showcase for their tricks. When the gag is up, the two are interviewed on the talk show where Penn says he wishes somebody would try and kill him. What unfolds is Penn, his girlfriend Carlotta (Caitlin Clarke), and Teller going about their day-to-day lives filled with trickery and nonsense.

As stated, this is a tricky film to summarize. At times it feels more of a showcase for the duo’s talents rather than a film and, mainly during its third act, it feels like a film more than a showcase. One of the issues is director Arthur Penn has a difficult time communicating the direction of the picture to the audience, and, to be fair, I think even the greatest cinematic auteur would find it a considerable challenge to do what Penn & Teller Get Killed sets out to do and do it without any reservations or confusion.

Starring: Penn Jillette, Teller, Caitlin Clarke, Jon Cryer, Tom Sizemore, David Patrick Kelly, and Leonardo Cimino. Directed by: Arthur Penn.